Top Gear 2016 Official TV show thread *contains spoilers*

[Sir Bagalot]

Is it safe to come in here yet

Cast your minds back to when JC and crew was on. Predictable & Scripted with the occasional excellent show. Many of us watched it on fast forward. Typical BBC programme. They find a format that is a winner and stick with it, slowly killing it off.

When JC & Crew started it wasn't great but then a rapport grew. Very much like with Jake/David/Eddie started F1 coverage. It takes time.

I like Chris Evans, and thought Matt did well. Let's give time to gel. The problem with me is that they haven't changed enough of the format. But I do like the new off road track

[johnxjsc1985]

Sir Bagalot said:

Is it safe to come in here yet

Cast your minds back to when JC and crew was on. Predictable & Scripted with the occasional excellent show. Many of us watched it on fast forward. Typical BBC programme. They find a format that is a winner and stick with it, slowly killing it off.

When JC & Crew started it wasn't great but then a rapport grew. Very much like with Jake/David/Eddie started F1 coverage. It takes time.

I like Chris Evans, and thought Matt did well. Let's give time to gel. The problem with me is that they haven't changed enough of the format. But I do like the new off road track

you lost me with the "I like Chris Evans" comment.
~Just look elsewhere not on PH it has been savaged it was awful and the main problem wasn't even that the format was the same it was Evans and that a problem for the BBC.

[esv683]

It was a rubbish cheap copy,turned it off.

[Smollet]

LDM said:

Have you ever wathed PH on tv ..... now there a shocker!

Sadly yes. Couldn't believe how dire it was. They could do a lot worse by getting the crew from Extra Gear when their time is up.

[T16OLE]

As a bit TG fan I was expecting to like it and thought a shake up may have even been a good thing.

It was pretty crap IMO.

Chris doing what was basically his impression of Clarkson's voice was cringe worthy.

The guests were a little crap too.

I preferred the Extra show on BBC I player.

I'm hoping it will improve though

[Beefmeister]

I'm absolutely staggered that for the first episode they went with a 3-wheeler 'challenge' just like old TG, but worse - the first segment driving to Blackpool was just awful tv- and the Viper bit was almost exactly the same as older segments they did before with gunships and laser tag.

Le Blanc was fantastic in the Nomad bit, he plays the laid back comedy guy very well because, well, that's what he is.

SIARPC was crap, again. Stretched out even further. And the 'some say' crud when introducing Stig, wasn't funny 3 series' ago, still isn't.


But..... Extra Gear was much better IMO. Reid is a bit irritating, always has been to me, but he'll relax a bit I'm sure.

Harris needs to relax a bit in the studio bits, he looked very awkward, but his other bits like the Nomad lap were brilliant.

[johnxjsc1985]

Any word from Mr Shouty macShouty today.

[Nardiola]

Beefmeister said:

Harris needs to relax a bit in the studio bits, he looked very awkward, but his other bits like the Nomad lap were brilliant.

Agreed, didn't really understand why he looked so wooden tbh.

Also totally hated the over-use of the Top Gear theme tune, seemed to be for every introduction of anyone on the set, they played it. Annoying.

[LDM]

Clearly in the minority but despite hoping for a bigger change in format (which we all new was unlikely) I liked it! Hoping they gradually add more content and that the chemistry grows / evolves. The previous 3 were far more wooden when they started so this line up stands a decent chance of doing well if people give them that chance rather than just moaning!

They just need to find the right ballence of content and the dumbness that seems so popular!

[treetops]

Here is what the press made of it:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2016/05/30/was-top-g...

[court]

DonkeyApple said:

Truckosaurus said:

C70R said:

...we should have two different big-budget TV shows about cars soon (three, if you count Fifth Gear ...).

In related news, Fifth Gear is no more according to Tiffany Dell's Twitter.

Hopefully him and Plato can get a gig doing something without the others.

Looks like Plato got out a couple of series ago, just did a series of that awful Vernon Kay vehicle on ITV.

Interesting to see Richard Porter and Jonny Smith doing rambling in-car videos on youtube. I wonder if they have something in the pipeline...

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCh0eEBQAhXSSK1Pqon...

[r11co]

confused_buyer said:

Evans appears to have two TV personalities: his TFI Friday one and his Radio 2 one.

He doesn't. I've alluded to this before - Evans was allowed back on BBC radio because it meant he could be kept to a rigid program guideline and have a producer constantly talking in his ear to prevent him going off-track.

Evans on TV has been the same since TV-Mayhem.

Just been thinking about the show again - are we really supposed to believe that Evans can out-drive Sabine Schmitz? IMO that and the 'piece to audience' with Ginger being the first thing we saw rather than the trademark fade-in to the opening titles was pure Evans ego.

So, he's done his Top Gun fantasy in ep.1. How long do we have to wait until he does his James Bond, celebrity chef and championship golfer fantasies?

Edited by r11co on Monday 30th May 13:35

[K12beano]

Entertaining


and


Mostly Harmless.


Not sure what all the various critics want, but it's a free country so why don't they just all band together and do something better.....

[suffolk009]

r11co said:

hairyben said:

There was something very amusingly humanizing about putting stars in a "reasonably" priced car, bringing them down to our level a bit by making them drive a stty liana or whatever. And that set the tone for the whole SIARPC segment. Again, subtlety thats easy to miss if you're superficial.

EXACTLY my thoughts when viewing that segment. The uncoolness of the car was the joke that never wore out regardless of whether the guests were interesting or not, good drivers or not. The change to a MINI and a rallycross course has change for change's sake written all over it (and as the BBC's own correspondent has said you could actually imagine the guests owning a MINI), and committee thinking misses the point and ruins the whole thing in the process.

I think that Clarkson and Wilman worked very very hard on the balance of the show. Getting that right is really difficult, and it's what made the show so popular.

Old New TG was the first to poke fun at the presenters - doing that is populist and importantly disarms their critics. CE and the producers of New New TG have shown zero humility.

Whether it is their intention, or not, last nights show came over as a great big ego-wkfest for Evans. It was not good TV.

[zb]

Evans is anything but stupid. This would be an excellent way to show how contrived and tired the format was, before doing your own thing entirely. I'll watch the whole series with interest, and see how it pans out.

[Riley Blue]

I didn't feel it was _that_ bad. Chris Evans needs to calm down, breathe deeply and speak rather than shout and though I've never watched Matt Le Blanc before but he seemed to be a competent driver with an agreeable on screen persona. The whole team, behind and in front of the cameras, need a bit of time to 'gel', just as the original team did so I'll continue to watch and hopefully enjoy future programmes more. One thing I did notice, the average age of the studio audience seemed to be noticeably older than before.

[Mud_]

Obvious shouty wkiness aside, did anyone else find playing the TG theme as walk-on music for the celebs particularly jarring? Not sure why that riled me so much...

[Jimmy No Hands]

People actually liked MLB? Was I watching the same show? It was forced, awkward and he looked bored. He wasn't remotely funny or interesting. I was cringing at parts. Cinematography was classic TG (not a bad thing, at all) but I just wanted them to try something new, it was such a good opportunity to go into a different direction and not just attempt a rehash of the old format.

Really disappointed, I really wanted to like it.

[delboy735]

K12beano said:

Entertaining


and


Mostly Harmless.


Not sure what all the various critics want, but it's a free country so why don't they just all band together and do something better.....

I think you'll find it's going to be called "The Grand tour"......or something like that.....apparently

[ThunderGuts]

I like the cut of Weenys jib